Today, my Co-Builder Stephen leaves Germany to start University education in the USA. When I get around, I'll upload pictures of his stuff that were shot during the last 3 months.

20041229

Its been two months since the last update... I just didn't have the time to update the webpages. Lots of time gets devoted to PHCC. Software, documentation and building boards/ordering parts,... Now, I have the Rev.4B Motherboard assembly tutorial ready. With many pictures.

I still have more than 100 pictures of Stephen's progress in the queue, but you'll have to wait a little longer for those, sorry.

20041027

The firmware updater/downloader program for the AN851 bootloader is now also available precompiled for Windows, see the PIC Software page.

First public release of cockpit.varxec.net (.net, not .de). Most content from cockpit.varxec.de should now be copied over. If pieces are missing or you find links that don't work, please email me.

The script that creates this website is still in development, and therefore changes in layout and arrangement can occur any time without listing the changes here.

Contentwise, there's a new Tutorial Gallery for the Toner Transfer method for making PCBs. Also I've added a few pages with bit of content in the electronics/phcc section.

20040601

Dry run test of the new website developed without WML. Now using a small perl script to generate these pages from sdf or html. Each source file for this website is also a valid perl script :-). Changes to the page sources were minimal since I use sdf again, this time even more extensively.

20040501

Long time since last update. As always, things have been going on behind the scenes, albeit slower in the PHCC area. Stephen has been busy with his Cessna 172 panel (~40 new pics) started about 4 to 6 weeks ago. Its being built in parallel to his other sim, the modular helo/plane sim.

I now have another server that I have direct access to so I can install stuff and do all kinds of other things. But most importantly, it has a LOT more webspace. I am working on a new design for these pages. The temporary address of this server is http://cockpit.homeunix.net. Currently it will be a mirror of http://cockpit.varxec.de.

I've also set up a mailinglist "sim-hardware" for hardware builders with an emphasis on hardware that will work together with flightgear. This list will hopefully also be a good resource for those on a small budget (with Stephens interesting ways of building simulated instruments from mostly junk) and for those wanting to have some deeper discussions about electronics, for example. See the new mailinglist page for details.

20040305

Added three galleries of stuff Stephen has been working on. I have to admit that these pics are already few weeks old, just didn't get around updating the website.

I'm working on a spreadsheet with infos/comparisons of different homecockpit interface electronics. See here for a "work-in-progress" version. I need help in filling the gaps/correcting stuff in this table, so please email me if you can help. I don't have all of these. Actually, I have only one of them, so all the info that I found is from the web (and some guesswork).

Updates and new board layouts/schematics, including the first Digital-out circuit for 48 7-segment displays on the PHCC pages.

Remade the upper parts of the throttle levers. There's also a DXF file with my dimensions. However, these dimensions are NOT from the real aircraft. I made them up myself. They might be in the ballpark of the real numbers...

A new screenshot and some comments on X11GC. I wanted to create a Korry Knob and also a Korry Switch.

Just a short status on PHCC: My bootloader based on Microchip's Application Note AN851 works great, Since I couldn't find a Linux based program to communicate to an AN851 bootloader, I wrote one myself. Both the bootloader firmware and the linux-side programs will be made available in a few weeks.

I'm making progress on the firmware for PHCC, but am still waiting for some parts. In the meantime, I got all 35 analog channels, as well as the keyboard matrix working great. Soon have to make some more PCBs. Stephen will need over 50 digits of 7 segment displays for his COM/NAV radios, MCP and GPS units. The driver circuit for those 7 segment displays (48 of them) consists of one PIC, 24 resistors, and 3x CMOS 4067(16x analog switches). One of these driver circuits should cost less than 20EUR in parts :-)

Last weeks update hit the space quota on my webspace :(. I had to delete some old stuff (don't worry, not from this cockpit.varxec.de site) to fully upload last weeks stuff. It won't be long until I hit the quota again, so I'll have to think about a good solution.

I updated my gallery generation script with some new features. See the new gallery about the AP Disengage Bar, watch for the red "NEW" on the gallery index page the check out those features.

Beginning with todays galleries, I put "watermarks" with "http://cockpit.varxec.de" into each image. This is only for our visitors, so that you can remember where you got the pictures from when they get dumped into a directory together with tens of thousands of others :-) I know it helps me when I go back through my downloaded pictures and sometimes can't remember where I a particular picture originated from.

Added a paragraph about software used in this project on the tools page.

I changed my gallery generation script a little, so new galleries will look slightly different. If the colors hurt your eyes or you get a headache, or ... then let me know :-)

A few minor reorganisations/cleanups.

20031028

Lots of updates. Including an extra section for Stephens own cockpits: a Piper Cub cockpit and its successor, a helicopter/GA generic modular cockpit. Also some pictures of his panels and the collective he is building.

Stephen, the other builder (my former co-builder of the big cockpit) has been working on a Piper J3 Cub cockpit which is done except for the 5 analog instruments and the heel brake. Maybe I'll get some pics of it within the next weeks.

20030820

Two new galleries. Some weeks ago I first flew with my standalone yoke/control column/rudder system hooked up to the gameport. It is so much different flying with a yoke than with joystick, keyboard and mouse. See here. As seen in this gallery, I'm working on a papermarche form around the yoke (see other galleries for how it looked before).

The second gallery shows the ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming) adapter that I added to my PIC programmer. This allows me to program most/all PICs that are now available. here. I'll be using it mostly for 12F675 and 16F877 and maybe some 18F parts soon.

Note that this project has 'downgraded' in the last month. Effectively, its not a fully enclosed cockpit anymore, but instead just some parts at the desktop. This allows me to build working non-linked controls for yoke/control column and rudder. The software part will get more focus thru this. Since I don't have the space for an overhead and too many other panels, I might work on replicating that functionality in software.

(For IE users:) Concerning the PNG transparency problem: If you want support for transparent PNGs in your browser then either sign this petition or use a better better browser (there are really enough to choose from. I prefer [firefox])

Added two new sections: Tools and Ideas. In the tools section we will show what we used to build our cockpit, and the ideas section will have stuff that came to our mind or that we found somewhere else on the net that could be used for our project

New gallery of the yoke and upper control column part showing the steel wires for the aileron/yoke linkage getting attached.

Changed my gallery generator script so that the thumbnail overview page contains direct links to each picture for easier downloading. (Right now, only new galleries will include this feature, like the one above)